


do simulacrums dream of electric thunderbirds?

by brighterthansunflowers



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Dreams and Nightmares, Eventual Romance, F/M, Idiots in Love, Native American Character(s), Native American/First Nations Legends & Lore, Revenant Being Revenant (Apex Legends), Soft Revenant (Apex Legends), perhaps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brighterthansunflowers/pseuds/brighterthansunflowers
Summary: What happens when a Simulacrum tries to fight a Thunderbird?He thinks if there is a heaven, then this must be hell.What happens when a Thunderbird tries to fight a Simulacrum?She thinks if there is a hell, then this must be heaven....An origin story for my original character, "Bee" Not Afraid, and how she made the awful mistake of falling in love with Apex's local murder bot, Revenant.
Relationships: Revenant (Apex Legends)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	do simulacrums dream of electric thunderbirds?

**Author's Note:**

> Oops, made a pretty self-indulgent oc for Apex. Thank you for reading! Also thanks to my friend @flowersforaliens (on ao3) for supporting me and yelling at me to finish my chapter. Please go read her Apex oc fanfic, Antivenom!  
> I will include some references to Native American mythology, just as an FYI. 
> 
> also, next chapter we'll finally meet Revenant whew. 
> 
> pinterest board: https://pin.it/7esJ6GZ

Date Unknown.

Pain. Lots of pain. It was like nails crawling through her veins. There was acid rain boiling her insides. All of her nerves are on fire, begging to be relieved of the agony they were feeling. A prick of a needle silences her wild, frantic mind and eases her body into a deep sleep. At last, a reprieve from the pain. 

It wouldn’t last for much longer.

Nothing good ever did. 

Days and weeks pass by, but to her, it feels like seconds. Discomfort replaces her previous pain. A dull ache spreads throughout her fragile body, rendering her immobile for a few moments. This gentle haze and fuzziness that’s warped her mind, it was like tv static that’s taken hold of her limbs and brain. She opens her eyes and, wait no…. make that…one eye? As she desperately tries to figure out what’s gone wrong with her vision, a man enters the bright sterile room and looms over her cot. The man was a plain-looking person with no distinguishable features aside from his steely eyes. The man pulls on a doctor’s coat that was a size too large for him. 

“Who the hell are you?” Bee manages to croak out. Horrified at how her voice sounds, she reaches up with her shaking hand and runs her fingers down her throat. Cold metal? From the corner of her one eye, she notices the colorful bruises that dot her entire arm. Except it wasn’t just her arm that sustained bruises. It was her whole body. Fear electrifies her mind as she glances down to see that she wasn’t dressed in a standard hospital gown, but only in a pair of briefs. Most of her body was dressed like a mummy as she was almost head to toe wrapped in bandages. 

Panic rises up and holds her down. Bee suddenly gets the impression that she was a butterfly being pinned and framed to be on display for the man. Her heart seizes when the man’s blank expression remains perfectly unreadable as he stares down at her. She’s sure her heart skips several beats once a frown flickers across his face, almost like he was unimpressed with her. A brief moment of indignation settles her nerves as she feels slightly offended that he didn’t seem too interested in his captured prey. He went through a bout of trouble to kidnap her but now looks like he doesn’t want her in the end? How fucking rude, she thinks. At least, she assumes that he captured her. Why else would she be in this uncomfortable cot, covered in bandages and bruises and reeling from an oncoming headache?

“Uh, can you hear me? Are you fucking deaf? And if you are, I’m sorry, but seriously…what the fuck-I-uh…where are you…um. H-hello?” Bee starts out strong but fizzles when the man looks her up and down one last time and exits the room without a word. An overwhelming urge to curl up in a ball and cry her confusion away washes over her, but she strangles the urge and forces her trembling bruised body to sit up. She winces and heaves her chest in pain. Her ribcage feels like it could collapse in on itself at any moment. What the hell happened to her? 

Just as she’s about to swing her legs over the side of the cot and wish for the best, the man returns with a cart. He sees her trying to escape and merely shakes his head at her. He pushes the cart towards the end of the cot and gestures to the duffle bag on top. “Your belongings…” 

Bee furrows her brows at him and gives a critical stare at the bag in question. For all she knew it could contain a bomb, or blackmail, or beetles, or…it really could be just her belongings and she was being delusional with paranoia which is reasonable for her current situation. The man sighs and zips open the bag for her, sensing her unease. She attempts to stand, her feet quaking beneath her weight, and fails miserably with a comical thud to the ground. 

“Oh right, apologies.” Bee throws a deadly glare over her shoulder at the man who didn’t look apologetic at all. “I forgot to mention that you may have some balance issues along with a plethora of other problems, but we’ll get to those all in due time.” 

“Uh, excuse me?” Bee struggles to scramble off the cold ground and sit back on her cot. She keeps her gaze steady on the man to make sure he didn’t try anything funny as she reaches for the open duffel bag and begins rifling through its contents. A crumbled picture of unfamiliar people, undergarments, and a warm red puffy satin jacket with various patches were the only items to greet her. This was it? These were all of her belongings? 

As a distraught Bee rustles through her only property, the man rattles off a rather long list of problems that quickly grew and grew into an impossible mountain that nobody could tackle. Luckily for Bee, as it turns out, she was a nobody. With nothing to her name except a duffel bag of useless miscellaneous items and a heap of medical debt, Bee was just one of many nobodies in the universe. It was time to turn herself into a somebody…but how she wonders.

As Bee becomes lost in her racing thoughts, the man clears his throat to regain her attention. He proceeds to ask her how she plans on repaying her medical debt to him. Bee sees the growing smirk on the man’s face when he mentions her debt and how much she’ll owe him. She finally takes a moment to stop and take a closer look at her surroundings. The cot and lack of hospital gown was her first tip that something was seriously wrong with her situation. The other indicator was the fact that there were no windows in this room she was confined in. All of these oddities, including the man’s behavior, were screaming at her to get out. 

Bee, in a calm tone, so she doesn’t alarm the man, asks him to direct her to the hospital’s office that deals with medical bills and payment plans. When he hesitates and becomes irritated is when she starts to develop a plan on how to escape. Faint sirens can be heard in the distance as Bee notices the door is slightly ajar. As the sirens grow louder, Bee lunges for the door in a desperate attempt at freedom.

…

April 1st, 2730

“So, he killed himself?” 

“Yes.” 

Bee recounts all the details after she escapes from the room. How she made a mistake and fled up the stairs instead of down. How he chased after her, furiously swiping at her feet to drag her down. How she pushed her fragile still healing body beyond its limits to climb up onto the flat roof. How he lunged after her and pushed her to the ground. How she attacked him back just as viciously, fighting for her life with every ounce of strength she had leftover. How he panicked when the sounds of the sirens grew louder and louder. How she ripped the ends of his doctor’s coat when he tried to restrain her. How he growled, gave up, and ran to the edge of the rooftop, and threatened suicide when the emergency services entered the building. How she watched when he fell backward off the building to avoid the consequences of his actions. 

She wraps the blanket they provided her tighter around her, cocooning herself in its warmth. The detective questioning her nods and saves the info she provided him on his device, tucking it away in his coat pocket. He waves at the driver, letting them take her back to the actual hospital where she originated from. 

A nurse with the patience of a saint helps Bee get comfortable in her new environment, taking extra steps to show her how safe she will be in this hospital room. Bee knew the nurse was just trying to be nice because she had obviously heard what happened to her, but she could barely muster a smile to show her appreciation. She digs her dull nails into her palms and squeezes her fists tightly. Bee frowns when she realizes she doesn’t feel much pain, even as her nails start to penetrate the skin and small blood droplets spill out. She stops once the nurse tells her to take a nap and that she’ll be back in a few hours to check up on her. 

Bee didn’t dare let herself fall asleep in the hospital bed and instead plops in a chair near the window, watching the beautiful Gaea night sky. Hours pass as she falls in love with the starry sky and mindlessly tests different nerve endings in her skin. She wonders what else is wrong with her but decides that’s a bit of a loaded question for right now and pushes it to the side when the nurse knocks on her door. There’s an awkward pause when the detective from before enters with the nurse. Bee could tell the nurse wants to chastise her for not being in bed, but the detective’s business seems to be the top priority. 

The detective settles in a nearby chair and sighs deeply before pulling out his personal device that contained all of the information he needed to relay to her. “As you might’ve already guessed, the man in the doctor’s coat had kidnapped you. We’re still trying to gather more details but as far as we can tell and in as little words as possible, your kidnapper was just some man who was down on his luck and had…let’s call them certain connections.”

Bee raises an eyebrow at the implication but says nothing right away, already assuming the worst. Sex trafficking? To sell her off to some black-market organ harvesting ring? Something else equally devious and nefarious? Whatever the reason was, Bee didn’t particularly care nor did she want to know. “It’s…not important. It, uh, doesn’t matter, does it? He’s dead, yeah?” 

“Yeah…he’s dead, kid.” The detective shares a look with the nurse that doesn’t go unnoticed by Bee. There was a hint of concern in their eyes, but Bee shrugs off their reaction. She silently hopes that they don’t try and hug her or comfort her in any sort of way. She’d rather them give her a sweet coffee drink and go away to let her process everything and go back to staring at the night sky. But there’s something in the way the detective shifts his gaze from the nurse and back to her and awkwardly shifts in his seat that tells her he isn’t done bothering her just yet. 

“Is there…something else?” Bee feels a sharp tingle in a small spot on her left arm and itches it. She hums to herself, a little pleased that there is some sort of sensation in that specific spot. So, she isn’t completely numb to everything. Lovely, she thinks with a thin-lipped smile. 

“Listen…kid, there’s…something kinda important you need to know.” The detective sighs and rubs the back of his neck. He lowers his shoulders in defeat and gestures for the nurse to go ahead and speak for him. Bee itches the spot a little harder, raising a critical eyebrow at the hesitant detective. 

“Well, Elyse…there- “

“No.”

“I’m sorry?” 

“No, uh, Elyse…was my mother’s name. I think.” Bee scrunches her nose as she recalls the crumbled up photo of unfamiliar people. One of the people was her, but with longer hair and a softer smile. The other person…was her mother? Elyse. “She uh…she named me after her…to be funny? I…I don’t know but that isn’t me. Bee…just sounds better. It fits better. Sort of.”

“Okay. I’m sorry, I was just going off of your file. So, Bee, I know this is going to be a bit of a shock, so let me know if you need me to stop at any time.” The nurse opens Bee’s file and shuffles through a few papers before pulling one out to read from. Bee can only shrug at the woman in confusion, not knowing what could be more shocking than being kidnapped from a hospital. “It appears that you’ve been…. asleep for approximately ninety years.”

Bee sharply inhales and breathily says, “Ninety years?” 

“Yes…ninety years. Today, biologically, you’re 26 years old. But chronologically, you’re about…116 years old.” The nurse clears her throat but continues when Bee says nothing more. Bee can only sit in silence as the nurse explains how it was all thanks to an unfortunate accident involving her parents and herself that left only her barely alive. Reviving her and healing her with modern medicine at the time wasn’t a reasonable answer, and so other extended family members made the executive decision to put her under suspended animation until it was guaranteed she would survive the surgery. 

Bee’s shoulders slump under the crushing weight of the truth she was served. She opens her mouth briefly but the only noise that escapes is a heavy sigh. The tired girl drifts back over to the hospital bed and sinks into the sheets, ignoring the nurse and detective. The nurse tells the detective that she needs to rest and that he could come back later. Bee couldn’t care less as she was more focused on other problems. She was curious about which distant family member kept paying for her to be under suspended animation but couldn’t foot the enormous medical bill she now owes. She supposes that should be the least of her worries and puts a pin in finding which family member decided to keep her alive for so long so that she can make them pay her debts and move on.

Bee falls asleep and dreams about what type of new technology she’s going to have to learn about in order to provide herself a decent living. Her dream self starts to thrum and vibrate with excitement at the thought. Being a tech analyst was her main gig and she was fairly confident she would learn fast enough to make money off of the trade. Bee’s little dream is all about the new and exciting aspects of being alive in an almost new century. Her dream self bounces around in the Gaea night sky, floating in outer space as she taps away on a tablet, completely enraptured by a teacher’s lesson on how to operate the new technology. But not far away, a ghost was looming nearby. A tall man in a doctor’s coat follows her as she floats further away.

The nurse from before knocks on the door, disrupting Bee’s slightly pleasant dream. She offers a smile and presents her with a stuffed chocolate donut that had a note attached. “This is from the detective you talked to earlier. He told me to tell you happy birthday.”

With a hesitant waver of her hand, Bee accepts the offered gift and raises the note close enough for her to read.

“You lied. But that’s okay, I’ll keep your secret. You’ve been through enough, kid.” 

Bee smiles. She may be good at figuring out when people are lying, but she’s a notoriously terrible liar. She may have had a perfectly straight face when telling the detective her tale, but something must’ve slipped that tipped him off to that one part of her retelling. Bee reaches for the ripped piece of the fake doctor’s coat that she tore off during her attack from its hiding spot and carefully ties it as a bandana in her short messy hair. 

…

January 5th, 2733

Turns out it was a slow day for news on Gaea.

Every news channel that Bee clicks onto, they all seem to be talking about either the ten year anniversary of the Humbert Labs incident or her kidnapping. She sighs, drops her shoulders in defeat, and decides to learn more about this Humber Labs incident. Who doesn’t love a good mystery? 

Bee listens to the news piece half-heartedly, only picking up bits and pieces as she works on her project for a client. The project was nothing complicated, just a little helper AI robot to keep the client company since they lived alone. It would’ve been more fun if the client wanted the robot to also do chores around the house, but no, they only wanted a companion. 

“Should’ve gotten a cat,” Bee hums with a grin. Her own cat meows at her and flicks his tail in her face. Bee waves the black cat’s tail away and shoos the curious cat off her workspace. Her cat, Neechee, was probably one of the best decisions she’s made since waking up in this new world. The next best decision was spending her first two years taking classes to educate herself on all the new technology she’s missed out on. How else was she gonna make a living as a freelance tech junkie if she was out of touch? 

Bee sighs, feeling a little awkward that she was bored with the current news special. Currently, they were running through a list of all the people who died in the incident, and while yes it was tragic or whatever, she finds it a little difficult to muster up any sympathy. Her brain was drawing a blank on emotions, but Bee shrugs it off and changes the channel. Speaking of emotions, a different news channel was talking about the motives of the man who kidnapped her almost three years ago. Apparently, someone took the man’s journal from the evidence box and sent it to the local news station for them to devour. She remembers reading comments online that were disappointed at the lack of released information about her kidnapping. Bee turns up the volume and returns to her project, this time paying a little bit closer attention to the news piece.

According to his little journal, he got himself into some trouble and needed an unethical way out. He was visiting a family member in the hospital and overheard some doctors and surgeons discuss Bee’s case. In a swift decision, he managed to knock out a nearby doctor, hide them, take their identity and called his equally immoral ‘friends’ to help him kidnap Bee and transport her away from the hospital. His grand plan was to either convince her to pay her medical debts to him directly, ransom her, or sell her. He was a desperate rookie and needed cash fast and incorrectly assumed Bee had the money because why else would she be woken up?

Bee groans once they start diving into his rough childhood and switches the channel again. It was advertising the upcoming arrival of the Apex Games on Solace. The term blood sport catches her interest. Bee had recently found herself longing for those intense emotions she felt during her kidnapping. All of that adrenaline and panic and…excitement. It all made her feel alive, despite the danger she was in. Nothing she’s tried has brought back those same emotions. She’s tried walking alone at night, gambling, crossing the street at the last second, and more. But nothing. It wasn’t the same. A dangerous voice in her mind tells her nothing will ever be the same for her and to give up on life. 

Her cat swats her bouncing leg and jolts her back to reality. Bee returns back to her work and adds the finishing touches to her project. She sends a quick message to her client that their little robot friend is ready for pick up whenever and to send the rest of the money to her account. Bee wipes her sweaty palms on her pants and faces her cat with a small smile. “How does moving to Solace sound, Neechee?”


End file.
